Originally Posted by willtsmith_nwi

Two times a really small number is still a really small number.

The energy required to accelerate the ENTIRE system including non-rotating bike parts and the rider dwarfs that of spinning the wheels. People "feel" all kinds of things that aren't there, especially when they're expecting to feel it (placebo effect).

A little bit of knowledge can be a bad thing. It's very easy to misapply a principle (rotational inertia) when you don't know how to work it into context. If a bicycle consisting solely of two spinning wheels with a phantom frame and ghost rider, you'd would be 100% corret. However, it isn't. I can get that heavy wheel up to 7mph with my pinkie, but my pinkie wouldn't help me accelerating the entire bike system (including my fat ass) up to 7mph. For that I need the big powerful muscles in my upper thighs and torso as the power required to get all that up to 7mph is quite a bit more then spinning a wheel.